Why did the Greek New Democracy remain in opposition for 11 consecutive years, and what did it take to regain power in 2004 with a landslide? This contribution focuses on three particular issues related to party change—i.e. party leadership, organizational structure, and electoral strategy—and explains how this party turned each and every one of them from liabilities to assets. In the course of this process, New Democracy seems to have reinvented itself and is being transformed into a moderate centre-right party.

You will be safer in the middle. (Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book II, no. 137)